St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-10-22

| UeSlucS your TeCOlleCJlOQS Oh WuaL
you were taught in school remind you
that the great grassy level must at
one time have been the bed and bottom of
vast inland sea of which only our great
lakes now remain. But from this bust
ling town, the metropolis of the North
west provinces of Canada, you are more
than ever strongly reminded of the fac..
You not only see the black prairie soil, the
like of which you observe in marshes and
flats beside low rivers, but you see the
shore of the ancient sea, the edge or side
of the bowl-and a considerable bowl
edge it is, for it. rises 10000 feet in the
air, in some places, and though you
think you could easily walk to the foot
of it from Calgary, you are mistaken, for
it is sixty miles away. That giant bowl
rim, as you easily guessed, is the Rocky
Mountain chain. Wonderfully grand
and beautiful does that gigantic granite
wall look from this distance with its
serrated upper edge all snow-clad and
taking on a-half dozen delicate shades
of lilac, pink and blue that make the
giant piles of rock seem as unsubstantial
as the clouds that float above US.
One little piece of that Canadian end
of the Rockies, just where we see them
from here, is national Canadian park
that few of us of the United States ever
heard of. though in the nature of things
we are all likely to hear more and more
of it and that speedily. This new pleasure
reservation is called the Bauff National
Park, and comprises PIG square miles of
the most picturesque valley scenery and
the most majestic mountain views imag-
Unable. The beauties of the place are not
alone responsible for its preservation as
a pleasure park, its main features being
the hot sulphur springs that distinguish
the region. Steaming water, heavily i'm
pregnated with sulphur, iron and me-
dicinal salts of other sorts, gushes from
the rocks in some places, and in others is
found in pools and cave bottoms. The
curative properties Of this water for
those who parboil their bodies in it are
said to be wonderful in cases of paralv
sis, catarrh. rheumatism, Bright's dis
ease, diabetes and many common com
plants, but | cannot vouch for any more
concerning the springs than that they
are hot, sulphurous and mysterious.
AS I write this, host Of men are putting
the finishing touches to a gland three
story hotel, capable of accommodating
300 persons, and containing baths, to
which this water is led in pipes from the
earth's laboratory; but at present every
thing here is so primitive and peculiar
that | rank visit to it now as one of
the choicest of experiences. Every turn
and incident recall some of Charles
Dickens observations, when all America
was younger and more crude, as he re-
cords them in his american Notes"
When the grand new hotel, which the
Canadian Pacific railroad is building, is
completed, the place will doubtless be very
popular, but it will be modern, con-
ventional and comfortable, like any
other resort, and all the present charm
of rugged simplicity and Western raw
ness will have gone, like so many other
peculiar phases of civilization, to that
place which Jim Fisk once described
vaguely but graphically as Where the
woodbine twineth.'
The entrance to Bauff is the Bow river
pass of the Rockies, a natural gate to the
Pacific through which the pretty Bow
winds and races down to the prairie
level. You leave the cars in the night
and find a stage-coach waiting to whirl
you over government road between the
stately mountains into the steep-sided,
narrow valley that the government has
set aside for eternity The moon plates
the pretty river with silver and throws
into wondrous contrast the deep blue
sky and the snowcapped peaks that
pierce it. Now you rattle beside woods
primeval, now you rumble over float
ing bridge across the restless Bow and
presently you stop at log-cabin hotel,
one story high, but long and rectangular
and roomy, probably the only log hotel
Except that one built purposely as a
curiosity in the Adirondacks) that you
will find in resort of this kind. Further
on the road the last stop is made
at frame house called "the Sanitarum."
There you will find simplicity so great
that the mind is appalled, when it turns
to consider what must be the greater de-
gree of it undoubtedly to be found in the
log hotel. The Office into which you are
shown has bare floor, an iron bar-room
stove, ana two tables and a safe. One
table is the Office desk, clerks quarters,
place and general seat Of in-
quiry and authority. The other table
serves to indicate that the apartment is
reading, writing and smoking room, par
lor and lobby, all in one. There is an
old Scotchman in charge who, upon be-
ing asked if it is possible to get anything
to eat, replies, There's nothing to be
had but bed at this time of night"
though that time is the only time of day
or night at which the transcontinental
train from the East arrives. The only
other common" room is the bar-room,
with two billiard tables and counter for
the sale of pop, ginger ale, soda water
and lemonade, for no laws in America